IL CARTEGGIO UGO BIANCHI & IOAN PETRU CULIANU: FONTE PER LA STORIOGRAFIA ITALIANA DELLA STORIA DELLE RELIGIONI
THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN UGO BIANCHI AND IOAN PETRU CULIANU: SOURCES FOR THE ITALIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY OF HISTORY OF RELIGIONS

Summary/Abstract: The previously unpublished correspondence between Ioan Petru Culianu and his Italian master Ugo Bianchi represents a fundamental source for the Italian historiography of the History of Religions, especially during its post-pettazzonian period. This article emphasizes Culianu’s first steps into the field between 1972 and 1975. During that period, he takes a critical stance toward the interpretation of the Himmelsreise der Seele: he embarks on monographs dedicated to Hans Jonas and to Mircea Eliade, and undertakes scholarly work close to Eliade at Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he draws attention to the importance of Gnosticism. Bianchi typically tried to enlarge historical-comparative methodological approaches by creating new cognitive and epistemological surveys into specific topics of the discipline. The letters between Culianu and Bianchi show the methodological and thematic affinities between the two scholars before 1986. At that time, Culianu recognizes in Ugo Bianchi a perfect master for his initiation into Gnostic mysteries.

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